With the help of several chippers, most notably Nancy Olson (I haven’t seen her post for a bit, I hope she is ok), I found that there is a card club right in Newport. The club is located on a part time basis in a restaurant/pub run by the local brewery, Rogue Ales. When I arrived, I found that Newport had a few more gaming locations. When I returned, I found that it had a few more in its past.

A common chip from Newport, Oregon is a hot stamped chip on a square in circle chip bearing the word, Piptide. The Piptide was a popular dance/night club on the bay front. The story goes that the owner originally named it the Riptide, built the sign and was then told that he could not use the name by another local restaurant by that name. The owner supposedly responded by knocking off the tail of the “R.” Thus was born the Piptide. From what I can gather from the internet, the Piptide had two poker tables.

A few years ago, the Piptide closed and was replaced by another nightclub called Apollo’s.

Apollo’s is a one-story building with a two-story section. When you enter, you see a dance floor on one side and a bar on the other. Walking down the center, a staircase in the back leads to a square room on the second floor. It is apparently used for live music. On some nights, maybe all, a woman sets up a table or two and runs a blackjack game, and reportedly, a poker game where the dealer plays in the game. They have one blackjack table and one poker table. When I was there, the chips were an odd generic set of home-game chips with the name “Gold Coast” on them and a hot stamp that included a dolphin image. I chose not to get one. She looked at me like I was an alien when I asked to see them. Perhaps by now, she has her own chips. I don’t know. I did pick up her business card:

This picture, of a bulletin board right next to the entrance, was taken this year:

Michael Siskin